When I announced the challenge, I had already decided that I wanted to use a book resist and make a more complex vessel. Then Teri wrote her guest post on the book resist and it reinforced my intentions.

I worked all day on my vessel and still didn’t get it finished. It is at the holding together/mostly felted stage and I have removed the resist but it still needs a lot of work. I haven’t fulled it yet or made the “eyes”.

I decided to add spikes to the outside of the vessel. I made 15 black and brown spikes and you can see the resist below the spikes. I sewed it together on the sewing machine. It has 6 pages but I decided I would rather have an uneven number so I taped two together for 5 pages.

Here’s another view of the resist opened up.

This is quite a ways along into the process. I have done one layer of wool on all the pages and now I am adding the “eyes” on the front and back of each page. There is a small circle of plastic to resist that area so I can then make a crater. The spikes are at least staying on at this point.

I went ahead and cut a circle in the top and removed the resist. The bottom has a small hole where I didn’t get enough wool around that portion of the resist. It gets a little tricky at the juncture where the resists are sewn together. I started to full the vessel but I was tired and it was time for dinner. So I thought I would just get back to it this weekend.

So for now I have this tub of tentacles. It’s fairly strange looking and I still need to fix the craters to make “eyes” and then get some heavy fulling done.

Have you started the first quarter challenge? This was definitely a challenge as I haven’t tried this type of resist before and just to make it more challenging, I added long spiky tentacles. I will show you the finished vessel soon. If you have been creating a piece for the challenge, please share it with us on the forum.

I love this challenge and would like to try it if I can find the time (I have a lot of company visiting this month). I love what you are trying, the spikes and the “eye” indentations. I can’t wait to see the results! Thanks for inspiring me!

your work looks very interesting. Thank you for sharing. Only new in felting, where can I find explanation how to add the spikes? Thank you very much. Have an idea just need time to realise it now! Francoise

Thanks Francoise. I have an explanation all about spikes in my book The Complete Photo Guide to Felting. Perhaps you could find it in your library? All you do is make the spikes but leave the fat end with loose fibers so it can be attached on to whatever you are making. I put the spike up against the resist first and then covered with more wool.